


Homo Sapiens Raptor

by Dangerously_Demonic



Series: The Guide to Murder [9]
Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Human/Raptor Hybrid, Jurassic World AU, MurderBby, Post-Jurassic World, Shapeshifting, Weird Raptor Things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-02 16:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16308662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: After escaping the doomed Jurassic World, Rowan finds himself with a new roommate in his suburban home: Murder, known as Alpha the Utahraptor by the park employees…The only living proof of InGen’s dabblings in human experimentation.Determined to reintroduce the hybrid shapeshifter back into society, he works to provide for his friend’s needs. The problem with the idea? Murder is neither human or raptor but a unique blend of both. This leads to Rowan struggling to understand the man who has the undeniable quirks of a raptor.At least Murder can talk, right?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Per usual, if you're new to the series, I heavily suggest starting with [The Modern Day Monster](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13728537). References to prior works and characters will be made heavily, they will also explain why characters behave the way they do. This story is also written with the assumption that these prior stories have been read.

Rowan

I made it off Nublar in one piece and I’m in one of InGen’s private jets to California. Owen sent me a short text saying that he saw you at the docks in Costa Rico with your friend ‘Adam’. I’m assuming that’s our mutual friend from the park. I’m glad you’re both safe, but let me know when you get back to America. We have a lot to talk about.

I did some thinking once I calmed down from everything and I still wonder if Adam wasn’t the prototype for the Indominus in some way. Then again, none of us knew what she was. Just that they’d been working on a new large carnivore and figured it was something like Giganotosaurus. I guess creating one hybrid hadn’t been good enough for them.

Which leads me to my next thought (I do that a lot lol get used to it, I’ll be e-mailing you A LOT). Since he has a human form, I’m hypothesizing that’s his dominant form. Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m still trying to wrap my mind around everything. So, that’d make him a subspecies of human. I guess. Technically, he’d be his own damn species but there’d be no where to put him on the taxonomic tree since he was essentially created.

Anyway. I’m thinking _Homo sapiens raptor_ , which would mean “Wise thieving man”. Fits him, I think. It’s just me being dumb, I guess. I’m just trying to come to terms with everything.

But I do want to stay in contact with you. I wouldn’t put it past Big I-G to come looking for what they think is their’s. Might not be immediately because HELLO LAWSUITS! But it might happen in the future. Plus you can’t exactly take him to a doctor for yearly checkups or whatever. And you know. I’m fucking curious and have a billion questions. So, you’ll have to deal with that.

Aaaand you might want to let Owen know, if you haven’t already. I think everyone is kinda attached to the guy. And you know how Owen likes big dangerous things.

Anyway, yell at me when you get the chance. It’s not like I currently have a job lol.

Kaitlyn


	2. Suburban Living

Murder jumped when someone knocked on the door. Immediately, he popped his head up, wide eyed at the noise and couldn’t tell if he needed to defend himself or not. He hadn’t remembered falling asleep, but it felt later than what he last remembered. Rowan passed by the couch on his way to the door. Since he didn’t seem worried, Murder laid his head back down with a quiet sigh. Then, he scented the smell of pizza and raised his head up again as the other man closed the front door. After a moment, he pushed himself up into a sitting position before following Rowan into the kitchen.

“Hey, did the pizza guy wake you up?” When Murder nodded, Rowan grimaced. “Sorry about that, but hey. Pizza’s here?”

He hung back a bit and patiently waited for permission to eat; he recognized the home as Rowan’s and not his. Rowan looked over at him and almost seemed confused before gesturing at the pizza. “What are you waiting for?”

Taking that as his invitation, he grabbed a plate, a few slices of pizza, and then all but scurried back to the couch. It smelled a slight bit like him and he considered it ‘safe’. Once settled on the couch, he hunched up his shoulders and started eating. From his left, he heard Rowan sigh before walking over to sit next to him.

“You alright?”

Murder frowned and shook his head.

Rowan sighed, “Yeah, I figured as much. The plane ride got you rattled up? I know you mentioned something about a wreck.”

“…All new, not mine.” He thumbed the edge of the plate, but didn’t look at Rowan. “Yours.”

Rowan tried to apply raptor logic to things, but he honestly didn’t know a lot about raptors beyond what he’d learned by being around Murder. Owen tended to be the expert on all things raptor and he suspected he’d be asking the man a lot. “Is…It because it smells like me?”

Murder nodded and picked at a bit of cheese on the pizza crust that’d burned. “Your smell, not mine. Trespassing.”

“You’re not trespassing. This place is yours, too. Remember when we were at the park and you kinda just wandered around my apartment like you owned the place?” When Murder looked over and nodded again, Rowan gently nudged him in the side with his elbow. “Same deal applies here, alright? You don’t need to tiptoe around and if you wanna grab something from the fridge, go for it. I’ll let you know if I’m saving a certain food for something. And the room’s going to be yours to do whatever with it. I’ll get you an air mattress set up until I can get you a bed, but it’s completely yours. I won’t touch anything in it…I just want you to be comfortable, alright?”

“…Alright.” He glanced at Rowan before looking towards the tv, but then back to the other man when he abruptly got up.

“Hey, now that you’ve got fingers that can’t gut people.” Rowan walked to the tv and plucked the remote off the top of it, then tossed it at Murder. About two seconds after, he realized that throwing something at the guy who happened to be lowkey freaking out might not be the best idea. However, Murder snapped his hand up and plucked the remote out of the air, then looked down at the buttons. Before Roan could give him directions, the hybrid already had the tv turned on.

The tv had been left on HBO and currently played some movie right in the middle of a sex scene. Murder sent Rowan a completely unimpressed look before tapping in a number at random, which landed him on CNN. The news of the hour, unsurprisingly, happened to be the events of Jurassic World and how InGen’s stocks had dramatically dropped through the floor. Murder tilted his head to the side as he watched the archive footage of the park.

Rowan flopped back down on the couch to finish wolfing down his pizza. “You seriously want to watch that?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, well, I’m gonna finish up with your room.” Then, he leaned forward to write a few things down on a piece of paper before handing it to Murder. “Here’s a couple channels I think you might like. Also, I’m making a grocery list. It’s on the table, so if you think of anything you might want, write it down.”

Briefly, Murder looked at the list of channels before looking to Rowan and nodding. Then, he shifted his attention back to the tv when an ‘expert analyst’ came on to talk about the unfortunate timing of the incident, especially after the uptick in ticket sales after the park’s latest attraction had opened. He tilted his head. As far as he knew, his enclosure had been the only new one.

“Right, the Utahraptor Jungle with its titular dinosaur, Alpha. Massive hit with park goers. Reportedly, when tickets went on sale, they sold out for the next two weeks in a span of _hours_. As the park’s only raptor on exhibit and the only male dinosaur, he was incredibly popular. Not to mention, incredibly curious about the guests. Jurassic World even had a contest open called ‘Awesome Alpha Action’ where visitors could submit videos and pictures of his various antics, and I stress the world ‘antics’.”

“Antics is right. I think we have some of the images and videos that were submitted?”

Quietly, Murder watched as several pictures were shown on the tv, in many of them, he had been wandering around the pen or eating. In the years that’d passed since his change, he’d never seen his raptor form outside of water distorted reflections and he found himself surprised at his appearance. The video they showed happened to be one of the many instances where he decided to interact with the crowd. In the video, he snapped at a toy plushie raptor that someone waved around before thumping himself against the glass and using it to itch his side.

“Quite a fascinating creature, but that brings up a problem: he was reportedly caught on Isla Sorna early last year and Utahraptors weren’t on InGen’s Site B list. Now with the news being leaked that InGen’s newest dinosaur that was supposed to go on exhibit, the Indominus rex, was a custom-made genetic _monster_ …This begs the question: what else did InGen cook up in their labs that we don’t know about?” At that point, the conversation shifted into legalities, ethics, and the likely destruction of InGen as a company.

Rowan carried a bag of trash he’d cleaned out of the room, but paused behind Murder as he caught the tail end of the video segment. “Honestly, that’s going to be a lot of garbage.”

“Saw me.”

“Well, yeah. It was basically a segment about you.” Rowan wrinkled his nose slightly; he needed to convince Murder to take a shower.

“…Never seen me.” Murder replied, a hint of irritation in his voice.

“Wait, you’ve never seen your raptor form?”

Murder shook his head. “No.”

“Wow. Well. I’m almost done with your room. I just need to vacuum.” Rowan continued out the front door to take the trash to the dumpster. When he returned, Murder had meandered into the kitchen to apparently get more of the pizza.

Honestly, Rowan really didn’t know what to think about having a roommate, let alone one like Murder. Still, he had promised to get him off the island. He made a brief stop at the hall closet to grab the vacuum, then went back into Murder’s room to vacuum. The sound echoed loudly in the empty room, but he doubted the guy wanted to be smelling dust since his face would only be inches from the floor. Abruptly, the vacuum died and he turned around to see if it’d overheated. Instead, Murder stood there holding the power cord. “…What’d you do that for?”

Murder curled his lips back into a half snarl and growled. “Too loud.” Then, he dropped the cord and stalked out of the room to go back to the living room. “Hurts ears.”

Rowan rolled his eyes dramatically before shutting the door and plugging the vacuum back in. This time, he managed to finish vacuuming the room without Murder going all snarly on him. After he put the vacuum up, he snagged his tablet and flopped down in the recliner. Curiously, he tapped the icon for his mail and smiled at the e-mail from Kaitlyn. “Hey, Murder? Kaitlyn got off the island.”

“Safe?” He looked up at Rowan who nodded.

“Yup. She wants to stay involved with your care since…Well, Owen was right. I can’t haul you to a doctor if you get sick.” He looked down at the tablet and started working on a quick e-mail response to inform her that they’d made it back to America. After a moment, he saved it to the drafts folder. “Just so you know, once I get your bed set up, I’m gonna take a nap. I need to go to the store this evening to get food and you some clothes.”

Briefly, Murder frowned and noted how he hadn’t been given a choice in the matter. He supposed he really didn’t have one, anyway. Only a handful of people knew about him and Kaitlyn happened to be the only one with any medical knowledge. He gave a faint nod before laying back down on the couch to continue watching tv.

After setting up the air mattress and making the bed, Rowan changed the sheets on his own bed, took a shower, and flopped the fuck down for a nap. The whole past year had been a hellacious ride and he honestly felt relieved to be home. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite know what to do with Murder, especially when it came to reintroducing him to society. While the guy obviously had a grasp on things, his knowledge seemed to be outdated by a number of years.

Finally, Rowan pushed the thought out of his mind. He’d only been home for a couple of hours and Murder hadn’t even settled in, yet. That sort of thing could wait until later. For now, he just needed to focus on getting the hybrid used to everything and calmed down. He didn’t need to rush into things and just needed to worry about the present, not things that were months down the road.

After being left to his own devices, Murder waited a short while before getting up to pad around the house and explore a bit more. Rowan’s room sat across the hall from his own room. His room had a closet and a single window that looked out into the small, somewhat overgrown backyard. The neighbor had planted large hedge bushes that gave the yard a sense of privacy. For now, he didn’t feel like napping, so he returned to the living room.

The living room didn’t really have much in the way of personal things. A few pictures hung on the walls of Rowan and, what Murder assumed to be, family or friends. Overall, the place just didn’t seem to be lived in, which he assumed made a bit of sense. Rowan had briefly mentioned being in the military during the Iraq War, whatever that might be; Murder didn’t know. Then the man had turned mercenary for hire which landed him the job on Sorna. If he were constantly traveling, he wouldn’t have a need for a heavily decorated home.

Murder related quite well. He hadn’t kept a permanent home after Michael had died and instead set up ‘camps’ around the island as the seasons waxed and waned. Continuing into the kitchen, he poked around and found a surprisingly large number of cookbooks. Curiously, he pulled one off the self in the corner and flipped it open to a random page. Stews. He placed the book back on the shelf and explored the kitchen a bit longer, taking note of the paper on the table. Briefly, he paused to write down a few items he could remember; his handwriting a messy scrawl next to Rowan’s block print.

Continuing on, he opened a door and found himself peering into the garage. It smelled faintly of oil and other mechanical things. Since he doubted he’d find anything of interest in there, he closed the door and slipped outside. Flickers of childhood memories bubbled up of running through a sprinkler, of throwing water balloons at someone, being tossed through the air into a swimming pool.

Murder tilted his head. Faintly, he heard the hum of a lawnmower, a car door slamming shut, and all manner of sounds that blatantly said ‘civilization’. He padded across the backyard, the shorter grass tickling his ankles as he sat down under one of the trees. It felt…Strange to be human again. He felt small. Weak, even. He’d gotten used to the sensation of being raw, coiled power just waiting to explode into action.

Then again, he couldn’t really be considered weak as a human, now could he? He hadn’t even been an adult when Michael died and look at the carnage he caused then. Softly, he snorted at the thought of his deceased mate and wondered what the hybrid would think of him now. He picked up a leaf beside him and slowly twirled the leaf between his finger and thumb, observing the vivid oranges and yellows. Perhaps Michael dying years ago had been for the better. He’d always claimed that Murder and his abilities had been Kurt’s goal. Likely, the ACU soldiers would have simply left Michael or outright killed him.

Murder flicked the leaf away and glanced towards his left at the sound of unintelligible speaking. At least Michael hadn’t died alone. But all that had happened years ago and didn’t have much bearing on his life now. A new world. No dinosaurs, just human prey and soft things. Lightly, he scratched at the thick beard on his face and made an expression of distaste. That needed to go at some point.

Rowan rolled out of bed with a soft groan. The nap hadn’t done much for his exhaustion. He stumbled into the bathroom and absently took note of the tv still on. Murder seemed to enjoy tv and Rowan figured it’d be a good way for the hybrid to catch up on things. After washing his face, which helped him wake up, he meandered to the kitchen. “Hey, Murder, I’m gonna go to the store and grab you some clothes. Got any preferences on the sort of pants you want?” When he didn’t get a reply, he turned around to look at the couch. No Murder. “Murder?”

He fought down the sudden spike of worry and peeked into the hybrid’s room. Nothing. Returning to the living room, he glanced at the front door. Still locked. Where the fuck had Murder gone? He walked back into the kitchen and noted the backdoor had been unlocked. Rowan all but flung the door open and bolted into the backyard. Murder sat under a tree, peering up at something in the limbs. Then, he looked at Rowan with a completely unbothered expression.

Rowan sighed in relief and tried to calm his pounding heart as he walked over to the hybrid, then sat down. “Hey. I’m going to go to the store here in a bit to get some food and you some more clothes. Do you have any preference on what kinda pants you want?”

Murder looked down at the jeans he wore. They fit well enough, but pinched in places. Lightly, he tugged at the waist band and the inner thigh of the pants. “Too tight.”

“Yeah, you might need something with a bigger waist. You’ve put on weight since I bought those for you. The length good?” When Murder nodded, Rowan grinned. “Cool. What about sweat pants?”

“Yes.”

“Any colors you like?” This resulted in a shrug. “Not picky, huh? That makes things easier for me. Well, while I’m gone, I want you to stay inside. I don’t want the neighbors bothering you. I’ll get Netflix set up on the tv before I go, sound good?”

He didn’t particularly like the idea of staying inside, but he also didn’t want to be bothered by the neighbors. So, he nodded and followed Rowan inside where he snagged the final slice of pizza on his way to the couch.

“If anyone knocks, just ignore them. They’ll go away.” Rowan snorted. “I’m not too popular with the neighbors, anyway.”

Once Rowan left, Murder poked around on Netflix to find something worth watching. He didn’t particularly feel like watching cartoons instead, he settled on some spoof movie involving a group of people having to escape an island of giant chickens. Including a giant Rhode Island Red and packs of roving Bantams. While completely absurd, he found it fairly funny.

To make matters even better, there were multiple movies in the series, which seemed to be even more over the top than the first. He squirmed slightly on the couch as he watched two Rhode Islands chase down someone, peck at him, then rip the man apart as they argued over who got to eat him. The sound of the door unlocking and Rowan stepping in caused Murder to look up, then make a quiet noise of greeting before looking back to the tv.

Rowan stared at the tv for a long moment. “What the fuck are you watching.”

“Gallus Park 2: The Clucking World.”

“…Is that a ScyFy Original?”

“Uh-huh.”

Rowan just shook his head and set the bags on the floor, then walked out to continue unloading the Uber. Thankfully, the woman had been understanding about everything and didn’t mind waiting at the curb while he finished unloading his things from her car. After thanking her, he headed back inside to put up the groceries and put a load of laundry into the washer.

Once done, he plopped down into the recliner. “So. How many movies in the series?”

“Five.” Murder tilted his head to look at Rowan. “Gallus Park, Gallus Park 2: The Clucking World, Gallus Park 3, Gallus World, and Gallus World 2: Clucking Kingdom.”

“…This looks absolutely stupid.”

Murder grumped, “Funny.”

“No, seriously. All of ScyFy’s stuff is just…Low budget, crap movies.”

“…Fuck you, I like it.”

Rowan raised his eyebrows and decided not to push the matter, mostly due to how Murder’s words had an edge of a growl to them. “Alright, well. I’m gonna make hamburgers for dinner.”

Murder simply grunted and continued watching the movie. This caused Rowan to shake his head as he got up and headed into the kitchen. Since he really didn’t know much about the hybrid’s taste in food, besides the junk food at the park, Rowan initially made a small batch of hamburger patties with his usual seasonings. He didn’t want to cook everything and Murder not like it. When done, he called Murder into the kitchen and held up a ball of hamburger meat to the hybrid’s nose. “How’s that smell?”

Curiously, Murder sniffed of it and his mouth watered at the seasoning. He made an approving sound before simply taking a massive bite out of the ball of meat, prompting Rowan to almost screech.

“What the fuck?!” Rowan jerked his hands back and stared at Murder, wide eyed. “You’re not supposed to eat it!”

Baffled, Murder chewed on the meat in his mouth, savoring the flavor. Once done, he tilted his head. “Why? You offered.”

“No! I was letting you smell of it to see if you liked it.” He made an exasperated sigh and looked down at the ball of hamburger that had a Murder sized bite taken out of it. “You don’t _need_ to eat raw meat anymore.”

“…I like it.”

“Yes, I know you like the hamburger meat. I…” He sighed. “You don’t have to eat raw meat anymore to survive. You’re not at the park and you’re not on Sorna. Humans eat cooked food.”

Murder gave Rowan an annoyed look. “I like raw meat.” Then, he plucked the half-eaten ball of hamburger out of the other man’s hands. “I’m not human.”

Rowan sighed as the hybrid popped the meat into his mouth and started walking away. “Hey. No. No. Wash your fucking hands.”

He tilted his head back and made an annoyed sound before turning around, stalking to the sink, and washing his hands. When finished, he looked back to Rowan. “Happy?”

“No, you ate my hamburger meat. Just…Get out of my kitchen.”

Murder rolled his eyes and went back to the couch to continue watching tv. Behind him, Rowan shook his head, “I swear to God. You’re not an adult, you’re fucking teenager.”

After finishing with shaping the patties, he put them in the fridge to chill for a bit, then went to pull the laundry out of the dryer. Quickly, he sorted out the clothes and dumped Murder’s on his bed. Returning to the living room, he nudged Murder’s shoulder. “Hey, why don’t you go take a shower? Your clothes are clean and you can trim your hair and beard, if you want. Food should be ready when you’re done.”

Murder considered the idea for a moment and liked the idea of better fitting clothes. Finally, he stretched and got up to meander into his room. There, he grabbed a pair of sweat pants and underwear before going into the bathroom. There, he found a fresh towel which he assumed would be his. Briefly, he trimmed his hair and beard before stripping down to get into the shower. The hot water felt nice and he stood under it for a moment, then grabbed the shampoo. Immediately, he wrinkled his nose in distaste at the strong, fragrant smell it had. In fact, all of the bottles were too strong in smell.

Instead of using soap, he simply went with the age-old method of rubbing himself down. It got rid of the bulk of the grime and always worked well enough. When his fingers traced over his shoulders, he frowned. They felt like they were more scar tissue than actual skin, anymore. Sure, his back had been scarred up between sex with Michael and spats with the island raptors, but he knew many of the newer scars had been caused by himself.

When he finished showering, he lingered at the mirror for a long time and simply examined himself…Then wondered what Michael would look like as an adult. Probably terrifying with his patchwork parts. Sighing to himself, Murder dressed and padded back out into the living area where the smell of cooked hamburger greeted him.

Rowan glanced over at Murder. He didn’t smell his shampoo and briefly wondered if the hybrid hadn’t used any. Considering the stressful day, he decided not to push anything. Instead, he handed Murder his plate before returning to the kitchen to grab his own. Upon sitting down, he rolled his eyes at how the hybrid had immediately started picking off the lettuce and tomatoes. “Dude. The veggies are the best part.”

“Don’t like.” After setting them to the side of the plate, Murder started eating.

“Veggies are good for you though.” However, his protest went ignored and he finally just shook his head at Murder.

Murder quickly finished off the hamburger and debated another, but decided against the idea. He sat the plate on the coffee table and stood up. “Sleep.”

Rowan glanced up at Murder, but before he could say anything, the hybrid had already disappeared into his room. “…Night then.” Shaking his head, he finished eating and then did a bit of picking up. Upon returning to the living room, he turned off the tv. “Dumb show.”

He hadn’t answered the e-mail from Kaitlyn yet, so he grabbed his tablet and headed for his room. However, he peeked into Murder’s room then rolled his eyes at how the hybrid had pulled the blankets and pillow off the bed so he could curl up in the corner under the window. Quietly closing the door again, Rowan slipped into his room and flopped on the bed.

* * *

 

Hey guys

I just CC’d Owen since he knows about Adam. Turns out he found out whn I was in the hospital. Anyways we made it back to America and Adam’s settling in. He really, really hated the plane ride ad was pretty spooked when we got off. But he calmed down after I got him some pizza.

Took me a bit to get a reply typed up cause Ihad to get the house in order. It’s been ages since I was here and so I had to get food, clean up a room for Adam, get him some clothes. That sorta thing. He’s talking more than what he did at the park so I think getting him back to civilization will do him some good.

I’ll let you two know if I need any help with him


	3. Just Raptor Things

Rowan grimaced when his phone alarm chirped and immediately turned it off before rolling onto his back to stare at the ceiling. He still felt exhausted, which tended to be normal, anymore. Honestly, he’d only survived the park by trying to adapt a similar sleep schedule as Murder…And consuming lots and lots of coffee. Sighing, he closed his eyes, determined to simply rest them for a moment.

When he opened his eyes and glanced at his phone, he quietly cursed at how nearly two hours had passed. He needed to scarf down some food, get to the enclosu– his mind finally caught up with where his body happened to be currently laying. No more park. After a moment longer, he got out of bed and stepped out of his room. Murder’s door remained closed. Hesitantly, he carefully opened the door and peeked in. During the night, the hybrid had burrowed down into the blankets to the point that Rowan could only see a bit of his hair.

Quietly, he closed the door and continued on to the kitchen after using the bathroom to start working on breakfast. He honestly loved the smell of cooking bacon, and figured the smell would be an easy way to wake Murder up. Sure enough, he faintly heard the sound of the bathroom door closing. A moment later, he barely heard the sound of the bacon package rustling and turned around to see Murder silently retreating…Then noted how several bacon slices had vanished. “Hey!”

Murder half turned towards Rowan, his mouth full of one bacon slice and he cupped his hands around the others he’d snatched. He noted the man’s expression of irritation but simply chewed on the slice of bacon in his mouth.

“Put them back.”

Murder narrowed his eyes slightly and stopped chewing on the slice of bacon. If it weren’t for all the drool in his mouth, he would have bared his teeth.

Rowan knew that look. Murder had often given it to him as a raptor and it meant the guy would be an absolute shit head. Usually, he saw the look seconds before his hat got dropped into the mud wallow. “Murder…No. Don’t you dare.”

After a moment, Murder swallowed the half-chewed slice of bacon, then shoved the other slices in his mouth before bolting to his room. Behind him, Rowan yelled. “GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

Huffing, Rowan stalked to the hallway and glared at the closed door of Murder’s room. Then, he continued to his own room to answer his phone. Owen. “Yeah?”

“How’s Murder doing? You said in your e-mail he acted a bit spooked.”

“Being a shithead. He stole and ate some of the bacon I was cooking.” Rowan returned to the kitchen to tend to the still cooking food.

Owen laughed. “Did you tell him he needed to wait for it to be cooked?”

“No, he snuck up and stole it.” Rowan dumped the scrambled eggs onto the plate.

“He’s still settling in. Place probably smells like you can he doesn’t know where he sits in order of things. Give him a week or two to really get used to everything.”

“Owen, he’s not a raptor.” Rowan laughed and dumped the hash browns onto the plates.

“No, he’s not…But he’s not exactly human. I don’t know what he is…Just that he responds to both human and raptor cues. I don’t think a lot of his behavior at the park was acting…I think that was him. When I worked with him while you were in the hospital, I had to get the raptor body language cues perfect or he wouldn’t respond to them. I’m just worried he’ll say something in raptor and you won’t pick up on it. Raptors can be very subtle in their language.”

“For Christ’s sake, Owen. He’s not a raptor. Murder trusts me and he’ll tell me if there’s an issue.”

Owen sighed and stared at the wall of his shitty motel room. Arguing with Rowan wouldn’t amount to anything except for stepped on toes. Rowan hadn’t proven to be the smartest around dinosaurs and it had only been Murder’s uniqueness that’d kept him from being mauled. Had he done half the bullshit he’d done with Murder to the Squad? He would have died the first day. “Well, you know him best. Just call me if you have problems or questions.”

“Will do. Anyway. I gotta go. It’s time for breakfast and you know how moody Murder can get if he doesn’t get his chow.” After a murmured ‘good-bye’ from Owen, Rowan hung up. “YO, MURDER! BREAKFAST!”

After a few moments, Murder slinked out of his room and slowly made his way to the entrance of the kitchen. There he paused before carefully making a half circle to one of the chairs. Rowan had obviously been angry over him eating the bacon and he didn’t quite know if he’d truly been invited back to eat. This house smelled of the man and Murder knew he didn’t have a claim in anything.

When Rowan looked at him, Murder didn’t meet his gaze. Doing so would be an act of dominance or aggression in this situation. While he preferred being the dominant raptor in the pack, he also knew it wouldn’t be the best thing to do right now. Until he figured things out, he’d defer leadership to Rowan.

Rowan rolled his eyes, figuring Murder still felt moody over getting in trouble over the bacon. Without waiting for the other to sit down, he grabbed a chair and started digging into the food. “Come on. Breakfast is gonna get cold and hash browns are gross when they’re cold.”

Hesitantly, Murder sat down and started quietly eating. Already, he struggled to understand Rowan. Earlier yesterday, he’d been invited to eat the pizza, then when the hamburger had ben offered, he’d been scolded for eating it. Given that he’d been invited to eat in only certain circumstances, he’d shifted to what made sense: he stole the food when Rowan hadn’t been looking. A move very typical in raptor packs when higher ranked raptors were eating first. Yet, now he’d been invited back to eat. Already, the ‘rules’ contradicted each other and were proving to be very, very frustrating.

He didn’t particularly care for the scrambled eggs, never really had, but he ate them anyway. Going without food and starving tended to change opinions about food. When he finished eating, he still felt hungry, but Rowan had already started putting up the leftovers which signaled the end of meal time. At least the food had been enough to sooth most of his hunger. Saying nothing, Murder got up and headed into the living room to find something to watch.

Rowan leaned over to grab Murder’s plate and briefly wondered if he’d given the guy enough, but figured the hybrid would say otherwise. Turning back to the sink, he rinsed the plate off and worked on loading the dishwasher. Once he finished, his hand hovered in front of the ‘start’ button as he remembered how Murder had reacted to the vacuum. He looked towards the couch. “Hey, Murder? I’m gonna turn on the dishwasher.” After receiving a grunt, Rowan shrugged and pressed the button. “Well, I warned you.”

He found himself surprised when Murder didn’t seem all that affected by the dishwasher. Instead of throwing a fit, the hybrid simply turned the tv up a bit and got himself comfortable on the couch. However, the peace didn’t last long when someone knocked on the door. Rowan grimaced as he walked to it and peered through the peephole. He didn’t recognize the woman.

Sighing, he opened the door. “Yes?”

She gave him a flat look at his irritation, but quickly hid it behind a smile. “Hi! Since you just moved in I thought I’d wel–“

“I didn’t just move in. I’ve lived here for the past three years.”

“Everyone just assumed the place was up for sale since we never saw anyone.” She frowned but then focused past Rowan to Murder who’d pushed himself up off the couch.

“I’ve been out of town for the past year with work.” Rowan opened his mouth to say more when he suddenly realized that Murder stood behind him.

“Go away.” Murder abruptly slammed the door in the woman’s face before turning and lumbering back to the couch.

“…Rude, but effective.” Rowan mused as he locked the door before heading for his room to grab his tablet. Briefly, he peered into Murder’s room and frowned at the blanket nest. A few moments later, he’d made the bed again. Satisfied, he returned to the living room and sat in the recliner to check his mail while Murder watched some cartoon.

When lunchtime rolled around, Rowan opted to make more hamburgers from the patties that’d been leftover from the night before. Much to his surprise, Murder all but inhaled the burger, veggies and all, in record time. Again, he wondered if the other had gotten enough to eat at breakfast. He glanced at his own burger that he’d only half finished before looking up at the hybrid. “Uh. Want another burger, Murder?”

Murder looked to Rowan and briefly sucked some sauce off of his thumb before nodding. “Yes.”

Rowan leaned forward to put his burger on the coffee table, but noted how Murder’s eyes followed it. He thought better of the idea and took it with him to the kitchen. Once he made the burger, he offered it to the hybrid who snatched it out of his hands and hunched up a bit, then leaned away slightly as he scarfed it down. “…What the hell, Murder.”

He reached out to touch the hybrid’s shoulder but paused at the growl that came from him. Rowan hesitated a half second before lightly touching him. Quick as lightning, Murder turned his head with a snarl and bit the other man’s arm. Rowan yelped and jerked his hand back, them examined the skin of his forearm which had a very good impression of Murder’s teeth; blood welled up from the canine marks. “What the fuck?!”

Murder glared at Rowan and bared his teeth, each exhale a growl; the move half aggressive and half fear of punishment. Slowly, he got up and carefully backed away, making sure not to turn his back. Doing so could result in being attacked. Sure, he trusted Rowan at the park, but the dynamics of everything had changed and he struggled to make heads or tails of things. Only when he reached his room did he relax.

Rowan could only stare, baffled, at Murder. That had been a wholly disproportionate reaction to being touched on the shoulder. Briefly, he considered calling Owen to ask, but figured he’d just get some sort of ‘I told you so’. Shaking his head, he got up to wash the bite mark and gauge how deeply Murder had bitten him.

After stewing over what’d happened, Rowan went to Murder’s room. Since the door had been left slightly ajar, he gently pushed it open, then blinked at the sunlight. Murder had opened the blinds to let the sunlight in, and since the neighbor had tall hedge plants, the backyard remained nicely private…Meaning no one could see into the room. Unsurprising to Rowan, Murder had rebuilt the blanket and pillow nest on the floor right in a patch of sunlight…And somehow found more blankets. Rowan had no idea he owned a red and blue checkered blanket.

Initially, he considered leaving Murder curled up in the blankets and pillowed until he heard a quiet, breathy, warble-hum. Rowan recognized the breathy warble as a stressed sound and immediately felt concerned. Had Murder acted out earlier from being stressed? Worried, he walked over and crouched down to gently shake the hybrid awake. “Hey, Murder? Are you alright?”

Rather than acting stressed, Murder simply made a soft chirp; the sound almost musical and frankly hilarious coming from a man of his size. When he looked up, he seemed sleepy and confused, with his third eyelid half exposed…Much like a cat who’d just been woken up. After a moment, he stretched, rolled over, and curled back up again. Rowan sighed softly and supposed that the sound had been one of contentment instead of stress.

He sat down next to Murder and gently prodded him again, prompting the man to roll onto his back. “Hey, Murder. Why’d you freak out when I touched you earlier, when you had the hamburger?”

Murder stretched again and lightly scratched his side, then absently rubbed his fingers over a faint scar. “Mine. Tried to take it.”

Rowan furrowed his brows. “What? No. I wasn’t going to take it. Why would I take it from you?”

This made Murder bare his teeth in frustration. “Tried to take bacon.”

“Well, yeah. You stole it and it wasn’t cooked. If I give you food, I’m not going to take it from you.”

“…Gave me the hamburger and took it away last night.” Murder noted.

“It was raw! You’re not supposed to eat raw meat. It can make you sick.” Rowan rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Ate it for years.”

“As a raptor, sure.”

“No. Ate it like this.” Murder gestured at himself. “Never cooked it.”

“Yeah, and when you showed up at the park, you were underweight and full of worms.”

“…No huntable food. Ate anything moving.” He made a frustrated sound. “Birds, fish, bugs. Rotting animals. I _survived_.”

Rowan abruptly shut up. He knew the dinosaur population had waned a bit, but not to the point of starvation. Truthfully, he’d just thought the worm issue had caused the weight problems, but then again? He hadn’t really dug into Murder’s file all that much. “You were starving…Is that why you let yourself keep captured?”

“Yes. Cage is better than slowly dying.”

He looked down, suddenly feeling guilty. Murder had honestly thought he’d been given the ball of hamburger. It made sense. Rowan often brought him treats in the same fashion. Of course, the guy would think he could eat it…And the idea of him starving…No wonder the guy seemed so food orientated. “How long was the hunting poor?”

“Three dry seasons. Last dry and wet season the worst.” Murder slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position, but leaned forward a bit with most of his weight on his arms. Then, he yawned.

“Three years, I guess.”

Rather than replying, Murder leaned over to lightly butt his head against Rowan’s shoulder with a quiet rumble. Normally, he pressed his head against the man’s chest as a means of asking for attention and occasional reassurance, but supposed it’d have to do. Instead, Rowan pushed him away, leaving Murder feeling confused and somewhat rejected.

Rowan wrinkled his nose at the strong whiff of raptor that came off Murder’s hair. The guy clearly hadn’t used any shampoo. “No, you stink. Did you even use soap when you took a shower yesterday?”

“…No.”

He made an exasperated noise. “You just completely forgot how to shower, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Then use the damn soap. You can’t go around smelling like a raptor pen.” Then, Rowan tugged at the blankets. “And get up. You can’t keep sleeping on the floor.”

Frustrated, again, Murder swatted at Rowan’s hands. “Leave it.”

“I gave you an air mattress for a reason.” He pulled on the blankets a bit more to try and pull them out from under Murder.

This caused Murder to growl before tackling Rowan. He easily pinned the man, but had to fight down the instinct to go for his throat. Instead, he curled his lips back and snarled as he dug nails that were slowly changing to claws into Rowan’s shoulders.

Briefly, Rowan saw stars when his head hit the floor, but then he stared up at Murder who clearly hadn’t been happy with his insistence of sleeping on the bed. However, the hybrid had slowly started to shift into something less human and the snarls caused Rowan’s blood to turn to ice. He never really felt scared of Murder, except for when they’d first met on the island…After Murder had butchered Rowan’s entire team. He turned his head away and quietly exhaled. “Alright. Alright. You can sleep on the floor.”

Murder slowly pulled away, but to drive his point home, sunk his claws into the air mattress; it rapidly deflated, much like Rowan’s ego. When the man didn’t immediately get up, he barked at him, the sound ending in a growl.

Hesitantly, Rowan climbed to his feet and grabbed the remains of the air mattress before slipping out of the room. After closing the door behind him, he leaned against it and sighed. Maybe he’d pushed things a bit too quickly. Murder didn’t like change, after all. Pushing away from the door, he headed outside to shove the air mattress into the trash. Once he got back inside, he started puttering around the kitchen to ty and decide on what he wanted for dinner…Or rather, what he wanted for dinner that Murder would eat.

The smell of fragrant food lurked Murder out of his room a bit later and curiously, he stepped into the kitchen where Rowan stirred a pot of…Something. He tilted his head and made an inquisitive noise. Rowan jumped slightly and glanced over his shoulder.

“Smelled the food, huh?”

Murder nodded, “What is it?”

“Chicken soup. Uh. Here.” Rowan dipped a small amount of the broth out with a spoon and offered it to Murder. “Taste that. Lemme know what you think of it.”

After tasting of it, Murder nodded. “Is good.”

 “Great. It’s pretty much done, too.” Rowan turned off the heat and started filling up two bowls of soup. One of which, he handed to Murder who immediately left for the living room. He joined the other man a few moments later and sat down to eat. Unsurprisingly, Murder had already snatched up the remote to find something to watch. Rowan tuned out the cartoon, finding the bright colors to be obnoxious. He had no idea what Murder found so enthralling about the show.

Finally, he had enough. “Well, I’m gonna go to bed. Night Murder.”

Murder looked over at Rowan for a moment and rumbled out something before shifting his attention back to the tv. Then, he turned the volume down a little bit lower as the other man left the living room.

Once in his room, Rowan settled on his bed and grabbed his tablet to read the e-mail Kaitlyn had sent.

* * *

 

Rowan,

It’s good that he’s trying to settle in. Just keep a close eye on him for stress induced illness. It’ll be pretty obvious since he’ll refuse to eat, he’ll be lethargic, that sort of thing. Also, just watch out for illness in general. Since Adam wasn’t exposed to a lot of human illnesses and probably never finished or even had all his vaccinations, he might be prone to getting sick. It’s hard to say what kind of immune system he has. I think when he got sick at the park, that was mostly due to stress and him recovering from being severely underweight.

Anyway. I’m glad you told Owen about him. I don’t know much about him and the whole…Shapeshifting thing, but it explains a lot about his behavior. He has raptor behavior but also a lot of human behavior. Owen would know more about the raptor stuff than I would. Still, I gotta know about all the weird shit he does. It’s gonna be funny if he starts marking your house like he did his pen. Speaking of that, how’s he doing with the lack of space? You might need to take him on supervised walks so he can stretch his legs instead of being stuck inside all day. But I guess it depends on how he’s acting.

Anyway. I’m with my parents in Boulder right now. Trying to find a decent house in Colorado is a pain in the ass. Once I find something, maybe you two can come out and visit. But that’s way out in the future, he’s probably still freaked out about what happened at the park.

Talk to you later


	4. Damn Good Aim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was slightly uninspired to work on this thanks to real life and other things. Have a slightly bigger than usual chapter.

While the next week didn’t have too much excitement beyond Murder’s continued food thievery, Rowan found himself relieved that the 4th of July had been canceled due to bad weather. Thunderstorms in July tended to be abnormal and a clear sign of impending global doom, but considering Murder hadn’t exactly settled in yet? He welcomed the notion. The overall moodiness the hybrid had shown at the park had resurfaced and Rowan had started to think that he’d just have to learn to deal with it. Apparently, Murder happened to be the type to be perpetually cranky and prone to throwing tantrums. A stark contrast to Rowan’s general positive attitude.

However, Rowan had more pressing issues to attend to than handling the hybrid’s shitty personality. Namely, the fact that Murder refused to sleep on the bed _or_ use shampoo. He figured he’d have to leave the whole thing with the bed alone since the first time he’d pushed the subject, the hybrid hadn’t exactly responded nicely. Besides, it didn’t really hurt anything and it seemed to help in keeping Murder content. So, really, Rowan saw it as just another ‘Weird Shit Murder Does’ thing. He really needed to make a list, just for giggles.

The showering issue, though, that needed to be nipped in the butt immediately. Murder’s room had started to have a vague undertone of raptor and while he acknowledged that the room smelling like raptor would help the hybrid settle…It still annoyed Rowan. He really didn’t want to be reminded of working at the park every time he walked into Murder’s room, something he had to do frequently since the hybrid had kept the same general routine as he had at the park.

So, after breakfast and Murder had settled on the couch, Rowan grabbed most of the blankets out of the hybrid’s room and tromped into the garage to run a load of laundry. He’d decided to leave some of them so it still smelled Murderish, especially after their brief argument a few days ago over the damn blankets. When he turned around, he found himself a bit startled to see the hybrid in question standing there at the doorway to the garage with an inquisitive tilt to his head.

“I was just washing some of your blankets. They’re starting to smell a bit.” He wrinkled his nose slightly at Murder. Maybe ‘raptor’ hadn’t been the right work to call what Murder smelled like. Sure, he could smell an undertone of raptor, but it actually leaned towards something more…Musky? He really didn’t know how to categorize it. Whatever it might be, it sure as hell didn’t smell human. “You really need to shower.”

“Did last night.”

“Yeah, but you’re not using shampoo _or_ soap. Plus, you could probably use some conditioner for your hair.” He reached out and lightly tugged on a tangled strand of Murder’s hair, causing the hybrid to tilt his head away with an annoyed rumble. “I went and got you your own stuff so you don’t have to use mine. So, go take a shower and get cleaned up.”

Finally, Murder huffed and stalked away. Behind him, Rowan reminded him to put on fresh clothes and he just rolled his eyes. Honestly, he hated it that the other man treated him like a child at times. Sure, he didn’t know a lot about the current state of things, but he didn’t have to be babied. Despite his time on the island, he hadn’t forgotten about the basics of self-care. Murder just hoped that it happened to be out of concern, and not an indicator of things to come.

Rather than gathering up clothes for a shower, he went into the bathroom to sniff test the things that’d been bought for him. Much to his distaste, the shampoo, conditioner, and soap all smelled strongly of fragrance. Growling to himself, he grabbed one of the bottles at random. As Rowan stepped out of the garage, he flung the bottle at the man’s head with a snarl. Yelping, Rowan ducked in time to avoid the bottle hitting his head and glanced behind him as the bottle clattered on the cement behind him.

“What the _fuck_ , Murder?!”

“Stinks!” He had no idea how Rowan hadn’t figured out about his sense of smell.

“Wait, wait. What do you mean it stinks?” Rowan carefully stepped back to pick up the bottle of shampoo. “It smells just fine.”

“No. It’s strong. It smells.”

After stepping back into the main part of the house, Rowan closed the door behind him. “It’s not…” He frowned, and paused to consider for a moment. Years ago, a friend had a dog who absolutely hated a certain brand of cologne. It wouldn’t stop sneezing and would bark anytime the guy wore the cologne. Did the same thing apply here? “Do you mean it smells strong?”

“Yes.” Murder glowered a bit.

This caused Rowan to hold up his hands slightly. “I’ll get you some unscented stuff, then. Maybe the hypoallergenic stuff. How’s that sound?” Admittedly, he probably should have thought of it earlier since Kaitlyn had mentioned always using unscented things to avoid annoying the carnivores. It’d make sense that the same thing would apply to Murder. “I just assumed your sense of smell didn’t carry over.”

“It does. Not as…” He frowned and tried to think of the word. The one that came to mind didn’t quite seem like the right one. “…Strong?”

“I gotcha. I’ll see about getting you some unscented.” Rowan thought for a moment and then sighed. Murder _had_ mentioned the place smelling like him, but he’d just assumed he meant the general weird smell that people’s houses tended to have when you weren’t used to them. He really needed to pay more attention to what the hybrid said, but presently? He had to focus on so many different things and it felt hard to keep things organized. The worry of InGen finding Murder again and hauling him off sat at the forefront of Rowan’s mind.

“Is that why you haven’t been using the shampoo?”

Murder nodded. “Makes me sneeze.”

“Alright. I’ll get you something different. Sorry about that, man. So how sensitive is your sense of smell?”

“Can pick up people’s scents. Can sometimes track them, but not as well as a raptor.” He frowned slightly as he tried to figure out how to put things into words. “Know about their health if I’m close.”

“So, it’s more sensitive than a human’s but not as sensitive as a raptor’s?” When Murder confirmed, Rowan nodded. “Alright. That makes sense. Hey…Murder? The rain’s supposed to move out this evening. If you promise not to run off, we can go for a walk. I know you’re used to a bigger area to roam but, I just…It’s a whole lotta new stuff at once and I don’t want you to get stressed out over it.”

Quickly, Murder looked back over to Rowan and nodded. He’d started to get a bit frustrated over how he’d been confined to the house or the backyard. While the pens at the park hadn’t been too terribly big in comparison to Sorna, he’d still been able to roam. If he started pacing the house, Rowan tended to bitch. “I promise.”

“Cool. Alright, well. Once the laundry finishes, I’ll make a quick trip to the store to see if I can find you some shampoo and stuff you might like. Is there anything you want while I’m there?” Rowan pulled out his phone to make a quick list so he wouldn’t forget.

Murder thought about the question for a moment. He didn’t really know what might be in the stores. After all, he’d requested a few items the last time Rowan went to the store, only to find out they had stopped being produced years ago. Though, something sprung to mind. “Tablet?”

Since Rowan only had the one, they had to take turns sharing it, something that annoyed Murder when he happened to be in the middle of a game when the other man wanted to check his e-mail. “No more sharing.”

“Maybe. I’ll have to see what they have at Wal-Mart.” However, Rowan thought about the idea a bit more. Murder’s knowledge of the world tended to be severely outdated and stopped around the early 2000s, which lined up with the how the guy had mentioned being on the island since 2001. Rowan just didn’t know how old Murder had been when the plane crashed on the island. Thanks to his appearance, he looked to be in his thirties, but then again? A beard could easily add ten years. Either way, he suspected that the hybrid had landed on the island at a young age. How young, he didn’t know. “Actually. Yeah. I’ll get you one. You can use it to learn about stuff since you’re pretty curious about stuff.”

The look Murder gave him nearly caused him to do a doubletake. While he didn’t smile, or anything obvious like that, he seemed to perk up. Then, he made a soft purr-snort. Even though the sound hadn’t been as deep or as loud as he’d heard in the past, Rowan knew the sound happened to be a pleased one. “We’re still going for a walk this evening, though.”

Murder nodded. “Good.”

Once he finished with the laundry and had dumped the blankets back into Murder’s room, Rowan headed to Wal-Mart. There, he spent a solid ten minutes sniff testing different shampoos, conditioners, and body soaps. After a bit, he became aware of a woman staring at him since he’d bounced around from the men’s soaps to the women’s in an attempt to find something with the least smell.

“What?”

“Just pick one. It’s not that hard.” She gave him an annoyed look.

Rowan returned the annoyed look. “Oh. So sorry for annoying you. You must _simply_ forgive me for trying to find something that won’t cause my girlfriend to have an asthma attack. I mean, fuck me for not wanting her to land in the hospital, right?”

The woman sputtered and tried to come up with an excuse.

“Mind your own fuckin’ business.” He snapped before finally tossing a bottle of body soap into the basket. Somehow, he doubted that Murder would care if all the products came from the women’s section.

Then he wandered to the electronics and spent some time there picking out a tablet for Murder. The guy liked playing games, and since Rowan figured it might be considered a type of mental stimulation, opted to get a higher end tablet. While it ended up costing a bit more than he wanted, he figured it’d be worth it in the long run.

When he finally got back home, he didn’t find Murder on the couch, but instead found a few dirty dishes in the sink with the dish washer turned on. After putting the new soaps in the bathroom, he peeked into the hybrid’s room. There, he found Murder laying on his back where he stared out the window. “Anything interesting?”

Murder looked over to Rowan before rolling over onto his side and sitting up. Then, he shook his head. However, his attention quickly shifted to the tablet being held out to him. Curiously, he took it. “Mine?”

“Yeah. It’s yours. I already got it set up for you and you have your own e-mail account. Know what that is?” When Murder nodded, Rowan crouched down in front of him. “Alright. Well. If you have any questions, lemme know. Also! I put the news soap and stuff in the bathroom. Wanna give it a quick sniff test?”

With a quiet grumble, Murder pushed himself up to his feet and wandered to the bathroom. He ignored Rowan’s eyeroll at his nudity. Once in the bathroom, he grabbed the new bottles to smell of them.

Behind him, Rowan complained. “Dude. Why aren’t you wearing anything?”

“Don’t want to.” Satisfied with the smell of the soaps, he set them down and started running hot water.

“But why?”

“Feels weird.” Without any shame, he climbed into the shower and started washing himself. Since the soaps smelled of just soap and didn’t have any obnoxious fragrance, they didn’t bother his nose any.

Rowan made an exasperated noise. “You can’t just wander around naked, Murder. You’ll get arrested. Do you know what that means?”

This time, Murder made the exasperated noise. “Yes. Clothes in public. None at home.”

“At least wear pants? Shorts? Underwear? I don’t want your balls touching everything I own.” When Murder stepped out of the shower, Rowan threw the towel at him. “How the hell do you still smell like a raptor?”

After towel drying his hair, Murder shook his head a bit and ignored the quiet indignant noise from Rowan. “Always do.” A faint, fond look formed on his face as he thought about Michael. “He always complained.”

This got Rowan’s attention and he focused on Murder, especially considering the man made an expression he’d never seen before. Did he mean the other hybrid supposedly on the island? Or someone else? “Who complained? Who are you talking about?”

Rather than replying, Murder simply moved past the other man and into his room. There, he sat down in his blanket nest and started flicking through the tablet’s apps. While a bit different than Rowan’s tablet, he quickly started figuring things out. However, a touch to his shoulder caused him to glance up.

Slowly, Rowan crouched down next to the hybrid. “Murder, while you was on the island…Were you alone?”

“No.”

Rowan’s chest suddenly got tight and he sat down on the floor. “Are they still on the island?”

“Yes.” Murder finally shifted his attention to the other man.

The quiet expression Murder had caused the guilt that Rowan had managed to squash down over the months to surge back up. He tried to keep the sigh he made even, but it still came out a bit shaky. This just confirmed his fear of breaking something up. Admittedly, he had enough contacts and money to make a short rescue trip to Sorna. “Do you want to go back to Sorna to find them?”

“No.”

The answer caught him off guard and a puzzled expression formed on his face. “Why?”

“He’s dead.” Murder stated flatly. “Buried him many seasons ago. Too many to count.”

Rowan’s opened his mouth to protest about the notion of someone still being on the island, but snapped it shut. Admittedly, Murder hadn’t been wrong. Whoever it happened to be still remained on Sorna, just not in a living state. Apparently, he just hadn’t been asking the right questions. “What happened?”

Murder didn’t immediately answer and looked down at the tablet in his hands before hunching up slightly at the memory. “InGen. Soldiers hunted dinosaurs. Hunted _me_. We’d kill them. They got smart. He got shot.”

He lightly touched his stomach to indicate where Michael had been shot. “Got back home. Tried to stop the blood…”

When Murder trailed off and shook his head, Rowan immediately what had happened. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose friends.”

This caused Murder to look back up and bare his teeth slightly. “Not _friends_. We hunted together.” Then an old memory bubbled up and he snorted. “Pack Kickass. We were…Together.”

Quite quickly, Rowan put things together. Whoever this guy had been, he’d obviously meant something to Murder…And likely the reason why the hybrid knew about sex. Leave two people alone together and they were bound to either hate each other or fuck each other. “You mentioned InGen. They were on the island for a pretty long time getting dinosaurs for Jurassic World. They had some info on you when I did the briefing, but the last pictures they had of you were from 2008. At least till the pictures from early last year.”

Murder looked up. “Yes. Then.”

“2008 is when he was killed?”

“Yes.”

Rowan closed his eyes. “So, you were alone for ten years?” When Murder confirmed, he sighed quietly. No wonder the hybrid had gotten so attached. “And you said you got there in…2001. And you said you’re from California. When were you born?”

“1990.”

His eyes snapped open and he stared at Murder, wide eyed. That would mean…He’d only been about 11 when he got on the island, probably experimented on fairly quickly, and then… ”Jesus Christ. You were only eighteen when he was killed...And that means you spent most of your life on Sorna.”

Murder nodded slightly. “Wasn’t that bad. Liked it till the end.”

“You mean when the hunting got bad?”

“Yes. Ate what I could. Let myself be caught to live.” Finally, he shrugged. “Miss the island, but better than being dead.”

Rowan sighed as he thought about how Murder had purposely injured himself. He’d probably been beyond upset over being alone again. “I wish you would have told me all this sooner it…Explains so much about a lot of the things you did. You don’t like being left alone, do you? But you don’t seem upset when I go to the store.”

“I know.” At Rowan’s confusion, Murder frowned as he tried to figure out a way to explain. “I’m told. I’m not in the dark.”

“Oh!” Suddenly, he understood. “It’s because I took off without telling you when I had my vacation and when I go to the store, I tell you. Is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Alright that makes sense. Uh…” Rowan hesitated for a moment. “I figure it’s kinda touchy, but can you tell me about who you were with on the island? Was he like you?”

Murder nodded slightly. “Michael. Was older. Like me but…Not. Couldn’t change. He half changed.”

“So, another raptor hybrid?” When Murder confirmed, Rowan nodded. “What do you mean by ‘half changed’?”

“Kurt wanted to make something. Used children…Used Michael, his _son_.” He frowned. “Michael was before me. Said most died. Said the ones after him changed but never turned back. Said I looked different.”

It almost seemed as if Murder had trouble remembering. His thoughts seemed disjointed and unfocused. This honestly worried Rowan. On one hand, it could easily be from being alone for so long, but on the other? He really didn’t know how being experimented on would affect Murder. Would it shorten his life? Did his speech decline have to do with the experimentation? Still, what he’d learned so far? InGen scared him, because now he questioned if the scientist had actually been rogue or not. “Okay. Slow down, Murder. Is Kurt the scientist that experimented on you?”

“Yes.”

“And Michael was his son?” Once more, Murder confirmed. “How were you different?”

“Not like the island raptors. Bigger. Michael was like them. He half changed.” Murder leaned forward and lightly brushed his fingers over the left side of Rowan’s face, starting at his temple and tracing down his face, neck, and then to his collarbone. He ignored how the other man had flinched slightly at the action. “Was raptor skin. Had claws. Raptor feet. Sharp teeth and always grinning.”

Finally, he gestured at his own eyes. “Yellow.”

“…So, he was RH-23…” Rowan mused to himself.

“Yes.”

“Gotta ask. How’d you get the name ‘Murder’? I doubt that was your original name.”

“Named myself. Michael called me his ‘Murder Raptor’.” Murder shrugged.

“…Ah.” He hadn’t realized that it had been a nickname, but that still didn’t explain why Murder went by it. “What about the name you had growing up?”

“Don’t remember.”

Honestly, Murder’s entire life had been sad, but Rowan found that to be the saddest. Then again? He had no way of knowing if Murder actually knew and didn’t want to tell him. After all, the hybrid seemed to have a limited tolerance to questions. Still, he seemed to be doing well answering, so far. Rowan didn’t want to push his luck, though. “Alright, well. Thanks for telling me all that. I’m still sorry to hear about Michael. It’s pretty obvious he meant a lot to you.”

“Had revenge.”

“So, you found the people who killed him?”

Murder gave a purely predatory smile. “Yes. Gutted the last one. Fed him to the Compys.”

Quite suddenly, Rowan knew where the bloody picture of a young Murder during had come from. What little sympathy he’d once had for the owner of the body cam suddenly evaporated. He slowly nodded. “Good. Well. I’m going to put something together for dinner, and if the rain quits, we’ll go for that walk. Sound good?”

The hybrid had already shifted his attention back to the tablet and simply gave a slight nod of acknowledgement. Rowan pushed himself back up to his feet and quietly slipped out of the bedroom. When he reached the living room, he sighed at his phone ringing. However, he smiled when he saw the caller ID. “Hey, Kaitlyn.”

“Hi! How’s Murder doing?”

“He’s doing good. I finally figured out the showering issues. He doesn’t like scented soaps. Messes with his sense of smell, apparently.” Rowan dug through the freezer before pulling out two steaks to thaw. “So, I got him some unscented stuff and he likes it a lot better.”

“Oh, wow. So, a lot of the raptor stuff _does_ carry over. It makes me wonder if his vision is different, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s theorized that since a lot of the theropods are early cousins of birds, that they’re able to see into the UV spectrum. Meaning they can see a wider range of colors. If that’s the case with him, it might explain why he likes cartoons so much.”

“I kinda think there’s another reason. Uh. Hang on. Hey, Murder. D’ya like mashed potatoes? Stuffing? What about cornbread? Aight, cool.” After closing the door the Murder’s room, Rowan shifted his attention back to Kaitlyn. “Sorry. I’m working on dinner and I’m still trying to figure out what he likes.”

Kaitlyn laughed. “Not much of a fruit and veggies guy, is he?”

“It depends, actually. He likes sweeter fruits and crunchy veggies. Not much for the leafy stuff like lettuce. Anyway. I ended up finding a lot about him today. Turns out he’s 28 or 29. Got on the island in 2001 when he was 11. So…That might be why he likes cartoons so much.”

“Oh, wow.” She went quiet for a moment. “Was he alone?”

“Sorta? There was another hybrid on the island but…He was killed in 2008.”

“That’s why he bonded so hard to you.” Quietly, Kaitlyn sighed as she considered this. “It explains a lot of his problems, unfortunately. At least it sounds like he’s doing better.”

“It’s just figuring out all his damn quirks. He still glares at the vacuum anytime I have to sweep. At least he stopped trying to unplug it. But I swear. Sometimes he acts like a fucking kid with his tantrums.”

“I don’t think you’re too far off, Rowan. He was on Sorna for seventeen years. I don’t think he really learned normal human social etiquette. He might not know better and he’s just going with what he knows.” She made a soft noise of consideration. “You might try digging into child development or psychology papers. I can do some searching for you and e-mail you a few things since I have access to journals. Until then, just keep doing what you’ve been doing. Have you gotten to take him on a walk yet?”

“You might be right. It’s just weird because he’ll be perfectly fine and then he’ll abruptly just throw a tantrum over something dumb. Got into an argument the other day because he didn’t want me to wash his blanket nest. Finally had to compromise by only washing _most_ of them.” Rowan eyed the food he’d set out and briefly wondered if it’d be enough. “I was going to do that tonight if the rain lets up. Mostly just been wanting him to settle into things, first. You know how he can get when things change.”

“That’s understandable. How’s he eating?”

“He’s fine. Seriously. Eats everything I give him and I’ve finally gotten him into the habit of going for seconds if he’s still hungry. He’s not acting sick, and besides always kinda smelling raptory, he’s pretty clean. Like, I’ve had roommates before and he’s the fucking cleanest one I’ve ever had. I just had to explain about how I like the dishes loaded and where to put the trash. Once he’s done eating, he’ll put up his dishes and half the time, the trash doesn’t even get a chance to get a smell to it. He lobs it into the dumpster for me. It’s honestly great.”

“Oh, good. I was asking if you were giving him things to do.”

“Yeah. He does all that without complaining. I did get him a tablet today. Figure it’ll give him something else to do and learn about the world.” Rowan quietly laughed. “That fucker is curious about everything. I’m kinda thinking about getting him some of those middle school work books. Nothing serious, maybe some of the math ones.”

“Khan Academy. It’s a website that teaches that sort of thing. It’s free, too.”

This caused Rowan to make a noise of interest as he wrote it down. “I’ll tell him about that. Thanks!”

“No problem. Anyway. I’ll let you go so you can work on dinner. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do.” Once he’d hung up, Rowan got to work making dinner. While he preferred his steak to be medium rare, he cooked Murder’s rare. The last time he’d cooked beef, the hybrid had made unhappy noises over the level of doneness his food had been. Hopefully, he’d prevent another occurrence of that with a slightly less well-done steak.

After fetching Murder from his room, he handed over the plate and briefly watched the man settle cross-legged on the couch…Thankfully, he’d put on a pair of sweatpants. The quiet sound of delight caused him to look over again and Rowan grinned when he saw the hybrid digging into his steak. “Like it cooked like that?”

He only received a muffled positive noise. Rowan took that as a ‘yes’. Unsurprisingly, Murder inhaled his food and ducked into the kitchen for a second helping of mashed potatoes. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad once the hybrid got used to being in civilization, again. Once the leftovers had been put up and the dirty dishes put into the dishwasher, Rowan nudged Murder’s shoulder. “It stopped raining. Go put some shoes on and we’ll go for a walk.”

Rowan found it hilarious how the hybrid did so in record time. Still, he didn’t know what to really expect as they started their walk. Murder seemed wide eyed and alert, but he didn’t know if the other man felt stressed or simply overly curious. However, he quickly noted that the hybrid would occasionally make quiet, inhuman noises. He’d have to explain to Murder about how he couldn’t make those noises. That could happen later, though.

After meandering around the neighborhood for a bit, they finally returned back to the house and Murder immediately went to his room to fiddle with his tablet. For the moment, Rowan decided to leave him alone and instead check his mail. There, he found a short e-mail from Owen.

 

* * *

 

Glad to hear that Adam’s settling in. With how much trouble we’ve had in the past I was worried he wouldn’t do well. Just take it slow, that’s the big thing I noticed with him: he gets belligerent if you try to push him. I know you said he’ll tell you if something’s wrong, but I’m still concerned that he won’t tell you or you won’t pick up with what he’s “Saying” since raptors use a lot of body language.

Just keep my up to date with how he’s doing and if you get any questions, you have my number.

 


End file.
